Saving Football in America, the Canadian Way

USA Football, the national governing body of the amateur version of the sport, made a seemingly minor announcement on June 7 that may in fact symbolize one of the most dramatic paradigm shifts in the history of American athlete development. This fall, the organization will debut a pilot program called Rookie Tackle that will introduce a football training environment based on the principles of the American Development Model, a youth sports training philosophy imported from Canada that embraces a holistic approach to athletic development. To understand why this marks such a momentous shift for the United States -- and the role that Canada played in it -- it's helpful to look back to the Cold War....